


Extraordinary Hazard

by pillar_of_salt



Category: Madam Secretary
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-03
Updated: 2020-08-03
Packaged: 2021-03-06 00:14:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,020
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25684111
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pillar_of_salt/pseuds/pillar_of_salt
Summary: Nadine goes to Nice instead of Jay. Nadine gets abducted instead of Jay, too.A revisionist insert for 3.20.
Relationships: Mike Barnow/Nadine Tolliver
Comments: 1
Kudos: 13





	Extraordinary Hazard

**Author's Note:**

> To bend the timeline a bit: Nadine and Mike are already low key dating. No one at work knows. Well, no one knows until Mike gets wind of the abduction and comes storming into Elizabeth’s office, stressed and panicked. Elizabeth can put the pieces together after that.

"Jesus _Christ_ , Elizabeth, what the hell kind of harebrained scheme are you running here?" Mike hisses. There's a wild alarm in his eyes that Elizabeth has never seen before, and doesn't like. "No location. No eyes or ears. No backup. How could you fucking—"

"I sent her to _Nice_ , not Fallujah," she snaps. But she softens immediately, because she understands his fear, and shares it. "We're going to get her back, Mike. I promise you that."

"Do you?" His voice is hoarse from yelling at her for the past ten minutes straight, something she'd never abide from anyone else.

She nods. "If it's the last thing we do."

Elizabeth has never been one to make empty promises, and she doesn't start now. The extraction team that rescues Nadine takes her directly to the nearest hospital. She gets looked over, she gets medically cleared to fly, she gets to return home.

Nadine is back, is in one piece, is _here_ , but it still isn't pretty. Mike doesn't know it right away because it isn't obvious right away—no bruises on her face, no visible marks anywhere. She looks tired and she walks like she's in pain, but she seems whole.

He takes her home. He's going to stay with her, he says, for at least the next few days, don't fight me on this. She allows it with a passive acceptance that is completely unlike her, barely offering any protest. It's only then that Mike begins to realize the extent of her injuries.

He has to help her undress because she's too stiff to do it on her own. His breath hitches when he sees the truth of her abduction on her skin.

A thick, horizontal band of dark bruising spans her chest and upper arms, along with one high across her thighs where he assumes she'd been tied down. Several more bruises decorate her torso. It's all he can do to hold back his anger.

"Jesus," he rasps. He bites back the nausea that sweeps over him. "Nadine…" She doesn't bother trying to hide from him. Mike takes a deep breath. "He… He didn't…" he swallows against a lump in his throat, unable to get the words out.

She understands what he's asking. She shakes her head. "No. It wasn't like that. He tossed me around a bit, but not… not what you're thinking."

"Let me see," he murmurs gently, reaching out. She lets him skim his fingers over her midsection, tracing over angry bruises, so light she can barely feel his touch. "Turn around, please."

She obliges.

"He hit you," Mike says quietly. It isn't really a question, but he needs to hear her confirm it.

She hesitates. She's silent a little too long for his liking.

"Nadine," he prompts, voice sharpening. It makes her flinch a little, and he softens right away. "Did he hit you?" he says again.

"...Yes."

Mike's hands drop to his sides. She turns around when he doesn't say anything. "I'm going to kill him," he says finally. And he's so furious that she's afraid he might not be joking.

She frowns. "Hey, look at me," she says. She places two hands on either side of his face. "I'm here now. I'm alive. I'm _fine_."

He lets her placate him, but his mind is made up. He can have Perismani killed—he knows enough people and is owed enough favors. He could have it done.

Earlier, after Elizabeth had gotten word from the extraction team that Nadine had been found alive, she had taken him aside. "Look, I don't know what state she's gonna be in when she gets here," Elizabeth said carefully, "but I need you to hold it together, all right?" Mike stared at her, so she stopped mincing words. "I do not need you thinking about doing anything that is going to jeopardize our agenda with Perismani. I know you're angry. But I need you to stay in your corner."

"You're going to make a _deal_ with that psychopath?" he said through gritted teeth.

She ignored his question. "Don't get involved. That's an order."

On an intellectual level, Mike understands. It's pragmatic; it's the right play—but he's just too close to accept that, and more importantly he just doesn't _care_.

Perismani is dead before DoD can even reach him, and Mike isn't even a little bit sorry.

He knows the exact moment Elizabeth finds out, because she calls him first. He's expecting it. She knows exactly what happened and who to blame, even if no one will ever be able to prove it.

"You deliberately disobeyed a direct order," she says, the second he picks up the phone. She sounds angry; angrier than Mike has ever heard her.

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Do _not_ fuck with me, Mike. I told you specifically to stay out of this."

"Yeah, well that wasn't going to happen once I saw what he did to her." He keeps his voice low. Nadine is asleep in the other room, but he doesn't want to take the chance that she'll overhear.

"Mike—"

"You didn't see her when she got back, okay? She looked like somebody's punching bag!"

"This wasn't your call to make!"

"Perismani had a lot of enemies. It could have been anyone."

"It could have been. We both know it wasn't." Elizabeth sighs. "You know what? It's late. We'll talk more about this in the morning." She might fire him for this.

"Bess."

"What?"

"You know that there are a lot of things I would do for you. You _know_ that. But this… I couldn't let this one slide. I did it for her."

"Oh, please, let's not pretend. You did this for _you_. Don't act like you consulted her! You did this to make yourself feel better, and that's all."

"You can't tell her."

"No," Elizabeth agrees. "That's your responsibility, isn't it?"

"Yes."

"Do you really think she's going to be pleased by this?"

"Elizabeth…"

"You might want to think about it, very hard, before you break it to her. Good night, Mike." _Click._

Maybe he made the wrong choice.


End file.
